Automatic means controlling feed of wire to wire working machines



27, 1934. sTEADLEY 1,952,782

AUTOMATIC MEANS CONTROLLING FEED OF WIRE TO WIRE WORKING MACHINES Filed Aug. 8, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fl G- 1 o nmmm 5 4 V I gwwzntoz KM; 47, W

flaw/cu F d' fm Y March 27, 1934. K. D. STEADLEY AUTOMATIC MEANS CONTROLLING FEED OF WIRE TO WIRE WORKING MACHINES Filed Aug. 8, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 KM d. Q43? xigw/fiu m Patented Mar. 27, 1934 PATENT OFFICE AUTOMATIC MEANS CONTROLLING FEED OF WIRE TO WIRE WORKING MACHINES 4 Claims.

This invention relates to mechanism for automatically controlling the feeding of wire or similar material to a machine in which such wire or material is used, and consists of the improvements illustrated in the drawings, hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims hereof.

In the accompanying drawings: I

Figure l is a side View of mechanism embodying the invention used in connection with a machine for utilizing wire in the production of finished articles;

Figure 2 is a top plan view illustrating the invention;

Figure 3 is a perspective view illustrating features of the invention in detail, drawn to a larger scale than the views already referred to; and

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view illustrating a second embodiment of the invention.

Referring to the drawings A designates a machine adapted to take wire and shape it into finished articles, such as coiled springs, such machine being schematically illustrated, as it forms no part of the present invention, but is shown merely to indicate how the invention may be put to practical use. Ihe wire 0 that is used by the machine A is taken from a coil or reel thereof, C, supported on a holder B which is mounted for revolution on an upright shaft or standard D. The support B and the coil of wire which it carries are positively rotated at a speed suitable to properly feed the wire to the machine, for which purpose there is attached to the support a hori- Zontally disposed circular disk E with which a drive wheel F mounted on a shaft 01 is in frictional engagement. The shaft G is positively driven through suitable gearing, such as a sprocket chain I connected with a power shaft, not shown, and engaging with a sprocket wheel H on the shaft G. The friction drive wheel F is free to slide upon the shaft G but is splined or otherwise secured thereto so that these two shall rotate together. K represents a bearing in which the shaft G turns, it being free to slide upon the shaft. L designates a portion of the hub of the wheel F, in which is formed a peripheral groove L with which engages a shifter J for moving the wheel along the shaft G toward or from the axial center of the disk which the wheel drives. A screw M, having engagement with a nut N carried by the bearing K and provided at-one end with a hand wheel m by which it may be turned,

is provided for manually adjusting the shifter,

it must berevolved faster to supply a given quantity of wire to the machine when operating at a determined speed. It is usual to drive the machine A and the shaft G from a common source' of power so that the relative speeds of these two are uniform whatever be the absolute speeds at which they maybe driven.

The parts thus far described, except in one particular to be mentioned, are of well known construction and are in general use. They are represented in some details merely that practical application of the present invention may be illustrated.

The one particular in which the mechanism described and illustrated differs from what is in common use is that the bearing K is freely movable upon the shaft G, without being rotatable therewith, whereas in machines which are in general use such bearing is not movable along the shaft but is stationary relative thereto and is secured to some fixed part of the supporting frame-work of the machine. In such older apparatus the wheel E is manually adjusted and only manually adjusted. According to the present invention means are provided whereby the adjustment of the wheel F to control the speed at which wire 0 delivers to the machine A is automatically controlled and is governed by the tension of the wire 0 between the machine A and the coil or reel C. It will be understood that if the machine A tends to use wire faster than .it is supplied from the reel by the turning of the support B there will be put uponthe wire 0 additional draft or tension, and this is made available to shift the wheel F toward the center of the disk E so that it will be driven faster and the speed at which wire is unwound or paid off from the coil or reel C will be increased. If the speedof rotation of the coil be too great the wire 0 becomes slack and the friction drive wheel F is moved in the opposite direction or away from the center of the disk so as to drive more slowly. It will be understood that very slight movements of these parts are required in the practical operation of a machine for feeding wire to 2. using machine, such as A.

While the present invention contemplates the automatic regulation of the speed of the wire feeding mechanism it is preferred to retain the manual adjusting means which have been described, these being employed in the initial set-,

ting and adjustment of the wire feeding apparatus, after which the automatically operating means will ordinarily take care of changes in the speed of feed which may be found necessary.

Referring now to those features which especially characterize the present invention 2 indicates an arm or lever, one end, preferably the upper end, of which is perforated or otherwise adapted'to'b e engaged by the wire 0 at a point between the machine A and the coil C. The arm or lever 2 is secured to a block 5 by means of a screw or bolt 3 upon which it may turn to a limited extent. This block 5 is supported upon a shaft 6 mounted in a stationary portion 4 of the frame-work of the machine, being preferably secured to such shaft by a set screw 7. Mounted upon the shaft 6, preferably on the side of the plate 4 opposite that occupied by the block 5 is a gear wheel 8 that is in .mesh with another gear wheel 9 supported upon a shaft 10 mounted in bearings 11 supported upon a stationary frame plate'ZO. An arm 12 is secured fast tothe shaft 10, and this arm engages with delivery to the machine A, in accord with the rate at which the wireis'being used.

A coil spring 15 is located between the lower end of the arm or lever 2 and the block 5, to

which latter the spring is attached, at a point, 16, opposite the place of connection, 3, of the arm 2 with such block. This spring is under some tension under normal conditions, that is when the wire 0 is being fed to the machine A as fast as the latter uses it, the parts then occupying the positions represented in Figure 3. A second spring 17 is connected at one of its ends with the lower end of the lever or arm 2, its other end being secured, at 18, to a stationary part of the machine.

It will be seen that the parts designated on the drawings by K, N, M, J and 14, constitute means which are supported on the shaft G so as to be freely movable longitudinally thereon and operating, as a unit, for shifting the wheel F over the face of the disk E toward and from the axis about which turns the support for the coil of wire. In this shifter assembly the element M is a manually operated adjusting screw by which the position of the wheel F relative to the disk E can be set or very delicately adjusted, and quite independently of the automatic movements that are imparted to such wheel due to tension upon the wire c. The projection 14 of the said shifter assembly serves as the means through which the crank arm l2the last element of the intermediate mechanism that is move d according to the varying tension upon the wire c tra nsmits automatic movements to the shifter.

The wire feeding apparatus thus far described operates as follows: The wheel F is manually adjusted to engage with the disk E at such point that wire will be fed through the upper end of the lever 2 freely or with little or no tendency to move the lever from the position indicated in Figure 3. If, however, additional tension be placed upon the wire 0 as will occur when the size of the coil or reel C is diminished, the lever 2 will be moved, its upper end traveling toward the right, Figure 3. This will tend to rock the lever 2 on its fulcrum 8, but the spring 15, which is thus put under additional tension, will cause the block 5 to follow the lever 2 in its movements, and this in turn will cause rotation of thewheel 8 anda slight turning of the shaft 10 and the arm 12. The latter, through the train of mechanism described, moves the shifter J to cause the wheel F to engage the disk E nearerlitscenter and therefore turns it more rapidly. The movements of the parts described are usually so slow that the lever 2 and block 5 move approximately in unison, but by reason of the i terposition of the spring 15, constituting a yielding connection between these two parts, a more rapid movement of the lever and a slower following movement of the drive wheel F, may take place. As theparts are moved by the increased tension upon the wire c, asjust described,

the spring 1'7is also put under increased tension.

Thepur-pose of this spring is to restore the parts to the normal position, when tension on the wire is released or it becomes slack.

In Figure 4 there is shown a different embodiment of the invention. In this-view a shaft fi' is mounted in the frame piece 4, taking the-place of the shaft 6 of the form of invention already described. To this shaft 6 there is attached an arm 8 which has engagement with the short arm 9' of a lever 10' fulcrumed at 19 upon the stationary frame plate 20. The end 12 of the long arm of the lever 10 is preferably bent downward and has engagement with the projection-14-from the nut N.

Upon the shaft 6' is secured a-block or disk 5 to which is secured the lower end of the arm or lever 2. It will be observed that the parts shown in Figure 4 which have corresponding functions with parts shown in the other views bear the same reference numerals as do those otherparts, with the exponent prime applied thereto.

It will be seen that the invention which has been described is not only simple in its mechanical construction but is adapted to be easily applied to machines such as illustrated in Figure 1, which are now in general use, without material alteration of such machines or particular-adaptation of the novel parts of the invention to permit it to cooperate therewith.

What is claimed is:

1. The combination of a revolving support for a coil of wire or the like, a friction wheel for turning such support, a drive shaft radially disposed relative to the axis of revolution of the support on which the friction wheel is slidably supported, a freely shiftable support mounted on the drive shaft, a connecting screw uniting said shiftable bearing with the friction wheel, means engageable by the wire led off from the coil and moved thereby according as the tension on the wire varies, such means operatively connected to the shiftable bearing to move it and manually operable means by which the said connecting screw may be adjusted to change the position of the friction driven wheel independently of the automatic operation due to the varying tension upon the wire.

2. The combination stated in claim 1 wherein the connections between the means engaged by the wire and the shifter means for the friction wheel comprise gear wheels turned by the movements of the wire-engaged means, a shaft to 4. The combination stated in claim 1 wherein the connections between the means engaged by the wire and the shifter means for the friction drive wheel comprise a rock-shaft with which the said wire-engaged means have connection and by which it is moved, an arm connected with said rock-shaft, a lever engaged by the said arm and connections between the said lever and the shifter for the friction driving wheel.

KENT D. STEADLEY. 

